The Jem’Hadar
' |image= |series= |production=40512-446 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Ira Steven Behr |director= Kim Friedman |imdbref=tt0708627 |guests=Aron Eisenberg as Nog, Alan Oppenheimer as Keogh, Molly Hagan as Eris, Cress Williams as Talak'talan |previous_production=Tribunal |next_production=The Search Part 1 |episode=DS9 S02E26 |airdate= 12 June 1994 |previous_release=Tribunal |next_release=The Search Part 1 |story_date(s)=Unknown (2370) |previous_story=Tribunal |next_story=The Search Part 1 }} In the Dominion introduction =Summary= Hoping to get to know Sisko better, Quark cons his way onto a runabout bound for tie Gamma Quadrant. Jake & Nog are going to do a planetary survey science project together, and the commander will pilot the runabout. That night, Quark's obnoxiousness drives Nog into the woods. He's deeply embarrassed by his uncle's behavior. Jake goes after him. Then the unexpected occurs: A humamoid female named Eris runs into the camp and is quickly captured by several savage-looking soldiers, who capture Sisko and Quark as well. In a temporary holding cell, Eris explains that the soldiers are the Jem'Hadar - enforcers of the Dominion. Meanwhile, a Jem'Hadar soldier delivers an ultimatum to DS9, stating that the Dominion has detained Sisko and will no longer tolerate intrusions into their Gamma Quadrant territory. In short order, Starfleet sends a Galaxy-class starship, the Odyssey, to investigate the Jem'Hadar threat On the planet, Sisko, Quark, and Eris escape, only to watch the Jem'Hadar destroy the Odyssey. Then Sisko discovers that Eris is actually a spy for the Dominion. To everyone's amazement, she beams off the station and vanishes. As the episode ends, Sisko comments that if the Dominion comes through the wormhole the first battle will be fought at he station, and he intends to be ready for them. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # I realize the creators did it for dramatic effect, but I think they went a tad overboard with the Jem'Haddar pronouncements of Dominion policy in this episode. Before we tackle that topic, lets take a moment to review the capabilities of the Jem'Hadar. These guys have some sort of personal cloaking device. They can beam onto DS9 with the station's shields raised. They can walk right out of a containment field. They can drill through a Galaxy-class starship with impunity. And - if that’s not bad enough - they have a behavioral code that allows to commit suicide just to prove a point (i.e., in this episode, one of their vessels crashes into a retreating ship). In addition. the Dominion evidently also has some type of cloaking technology for their ships, since Eris beamed off the station without a trace. Get the picture? These are not guys you want to fool with. Wow let's look at Third Talak'TaIan's pronouncements to the DS9 staff. We'll pick up the scene shortly after he beams into Ops on the station Third Talak'Talan: Commander Sisko will serve as an example of what happens to anyone who interferes with the Dominion. Kira: What kind of interference are you talking about? Third Talak'Talan: Coming through the anomaly is interference enough. Unless you wish to continue to offend the Dominion, I suggest you stay on your side of the galaxy. Sounds pretty definite, doesn't it? If the Federation sends a ship through the wormhole, they will be offended. Period. So what’s the response from the station crew? Dax says that the Jem'Hadar are making a mistake if they think kidnapping Sisko will stop the Federation from exploring the Gamma Quadrant. Hold it! Wait a minute! The Jem'Hadar have just laid claim to an area of space, and the Federation isn’t going to respect that? If the Federation wandered into a new area of space in the Alpha Quadrant, and a race came out to meet them with guns blazing, the Federation would still push on and keep exploring in that region though it was claimed by another group?! Is this really Federation policy? Talk about a blueprint for continual conflict! No wonder the Federation has been at war with all it’s neighbours at one time or other! It evidently takes bloodshed before the Federation backs off. (Or is the problem the Gamma Quadrant? Without the Gamma Quadrant, Bajor loses all it significance, and the members of the Starfleet staff on DS9 become minders of a useless wormhole. Is that the real motivation for Dax's remark? Is she worried about losing her status as the science officer of an important station?) One last word on this subject: I reproduced Third Takk'Talan's dialogue for an important reason. In the third and fourth seasons, we are going to revisit these words several times, and I wanted to have an episode review I could reference later. As you probably already know, the creators conveniently forgot what Third Talak'Talan said here as the next two seasons progressed.The Federation has a history of refusing to submit to this kind of blatant intimidation, and continue to travel to the Gamma Quadrant to demonstrate that they won’t back down. Equipment Oddities # Is there some reason that none of the Starfleet vessels fires photon torpedoes at the Jem'Haddar ships? Either they are not available, or they realise that the Jem’Hadar ships are too manoeuvrable for a torpedo lock. Continuity And Production Problems # Near the beginning of this episode, Sisko reacts when Jake reveals that Nog will be his partner in the science project. "Partner?" Sisko questions. The closed captioning at this point reads, "Pardon?" Either way, Sisko is trying to make sure he heard his son correctly. # Okay! Um...so there's still a collar on Eris in the holding cell that suppresses her telekinetic ability, right? Aaaaand Sisko decides that he thinks it would be good to take the collar off because then Eris could use her power to knock out the force field that imprisons them. With me so far? Good. He asks Eris if he can pry off the casing to get at the locking mechanism, and she says okay. Then the shot changes—and so help me, I am not joking about this— it looks like he starts unbuttoning her blouse! Did I miss something in this conversation? Why is he working on her shirt?! He probably wanted to get a clearer look at the collar. Nit Central # Norman on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 3:36 am: Eris is a vorta that has these special powers, but none of the other Vortas we see later seem to have this power! (In fact, they're deliberately deficient in sight, with strong ears as it is later revealed) Murray Leeder on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 6:42 am:'' Ron Moore has said that not all Vorta have special powers, and that those abilities were given by the Founders specifically for her. Nice save, Ron.' # ''Phillip Culley on Tuesday, March 23, 1999 - 5:15 am: Just before going to rescue Sisko, O'Brien mentions fitting the runabouts with photon torpedoes. However, during the battle, the runabouts only fired their phasers. If they had taken advantage of their torpedoes, the Odyssey might have had enough cover fire to escape...The torpedoes may not be ready at that point. # ashley culley on Tuesday, March 23, 1999 - 9:00 am: This isn't my nit, just one a friend of mine brought up… The runabouts are capable of each carrying 40 people in an emergency. The Odyssey had only a skeleton crew. Rather than sitting there gawping, couldn't our friends in the runabouts have done something to help? Merat on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 4:59 pm: The only problem is that the Odyssey blew up in just a few seconds. I don't think there was time for them to beam anyone out. What might have been a good idea though, is an isolated set of transporters that when the ship is facing destruction tries to beam everyone onboard into the nearest inhabitable area. KAM on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 3:01 am: Such as the enemy ships that caused the ship's destruction? ;-) ''Merat on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 6:57 pm:''Well, those would typically have shields up, preventing beaming, but... yeah. Just always have the crew armed during battle, just in case :) ''Thande on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 7:30 am:''x Well, it worked for Kirk in ST2 and ''SPOILER! Dukat in Return to Grace...' # ''norman on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 1:13 am: Okay. Why did O'Brien beam up Eris? He didn't know who she was. Just because he concluded she wasn't a Jem Haddar (which is good work, considering he just saw his first one hours ago and they were not on Federation computer records), doesn't mean he should beam an unknown alien up! Seniram There was no justification for leaving her behind, as they didn’t know who she really was. # Lea Frost on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 12:33 pm: Not a nit exactly, more of a changed premise...but now that we know that Odo's people are the Founders, it seems rather odd that Eris shows no reaction when she sees him on DS9. (Yeah, I know that hadn't really been established when this episode was made…) Murray Leeder on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 12:36 pm: Perhaps she didn't recognize him as a Founder. norman on Wednesday, March 24, 1999 - 2:06 pm: Perhaps the Founders did not make themselves look like Odo, until after they met him in The Search That does not mean Vorta or the Jems would immediately recognize Odo or a Changeling in a form they have never seen before. # Keith Alan Morgan on Thursday, May 06, 1999 - 6:35 am: I got snapped at for referring to 2 later Voyager episodes in a Voyager entry so… REFERENCE TO 4TH & 6TH SEASON SHOWS IN NEXT PARAGRAPH In Rocks and Shoals it is mentioned that there is an order of things, the Jem'Hadar obey the Vorta, except in rare circumstances like in To the Death, so I wonder how the Jem'Hadar felt being ordered to treat Eris like a prisoner instead of as the Vorta? Seniram They probably felt it was necessary as part of the deception plan. # REFERENCE TO 4TH SEASON SHOWS IN NEXT PARAGRAPH In Broken Link the female Changeling tells Garak that all of the Cardassians and Romulans who attacked their homeworld in The Die is Cast are dead, but later we find out that they were taken prisoner, which seems a far more likely fate of all those ships and colonies that Third Talak'Talan has claimed are destroyed. Or maybe the ships and colonies were wiped out, and the Cardassian and Romulan prisoners were taken for questioning. # Will on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 10:39 am: The impact from the Jem'Hadar warship against the Odyssey was a weird thing; a chunk of the starship breaks of from the collision, but she remains absolutely still. A force like that collision definitely would have pushed the starship to one side. The Jem'Hadar ship should also have rammed the engine, not the deflector dish if they wanted to destroy the Odyssey quickly. Riker on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 2:00 pm: The Jem'Hadar hit the USS Odyssey where it did because the warp core is right behind the deflector dish. Also, the crippling blow the Odyssey took would have caused the deuterium tank to fracture, as well as wreck havoc on the structural integrity of the dorsal connector even if the warp core itself wasn't impacted. Will on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 10:14 am: Neglected to mention that for a ship that went to the other side of the wormhole prepared for a fight, it sure did let the Jem'Hadar to get in REAL close before they even fired their first (of very few) shots. Looks like the guy at Tactical was trained by the same guy that trained the Voyager crew to fire as little as possible, because as we all know getting hit by phasers really stings and that might be considered a rude gesture. Thande on Thursday, December 04, 2003 - 10:32 am: In my opinion, the Dominion have clearly watched every episode of TNG and VOY and know perfectly well that, given time, Capt Keogh and crew will pull a solution out of thin air by modifying the deflector dish to emit 'some kind of telericionic plasmic tachyonic polaric dekyon pulse compression wave'. Thus, they ram the deflector dish. See how it makes sense? Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine